Unmasking the joys of theatre: Vamos Theatre

It was back in April and we were crawling out of our third lockdown. As creative producer for Vamos Theatre, the UK's leading full mask company, I was making the tentative steps back to delivering in person at schools, colleges and drama schools. It became quickly obvious that after a year of working in little boxes online, young actors and early-career artists were not connected or confident in their bodies. Their bodies were stiff, wooden, and tense; their nerves and anxieties were translating into their physical character and storytelling. It was this observation, coupled with the fact that schools are feeling, quite rightly, nervous about pupils wearing and sharing full face masks, that meant I started to dream up a digital learning programme based on Vamos Theatre's full mask, devised theatre techniques, and making it accessible both in and out of mask.